2011 Season

LPB's series of classic French films called Cinéma Français aired on Sundays at 10PM on LPB2 with an encore showing on Saturdays at 10PM. (In New Orleans, see it on WLAE at 11PM on Sunday nights).

LPB2 is available on Cox Cable in Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

The series of 12 films is hosted by Dr. William Arceneaux. His introductions and the films themselves are in French with English subtitles.

Zou Zou - (approximately 1 hr 37 min.)

Sunday, January 23 and Saturday, January 29Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Marc Allégret. 1930s.Zou Zou (played by Josephine Baker) tries to help her childhood friend prove his innocence after he's accused of murder.

Thérèse Raquin - (approx. 1 hr 42 min.)

Sunday, January 30 and Saturday, February 5Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Marcel Carné. 1953.A long-suffering housewife dreams of a more romantic life-partner than the bourgeois Camille. Thérèse enjoys a torrid affair with burly truck-driver Laurent only to realize the true emptiness of her aspirations.

Deux Hommes Dans La Ville - (approx. 1 hr 40 min.)

Sunday, February 6 and Saturday, February 12Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by José Giovanni. 1973.A former bank robber is released after 10 years in prison. He gets help from a social-worker, but gets harassed by an old cop from his past.

Borsalino & Co. - (approx. 1 hr 50 min.)

Sunday, February 13 and Saturday, February 19Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Jacques Deray. 1974.Charismatic gangsters in 1930s Marseilles dispose of enemies in a variety of novel (and gruesome) methods.

Flic Story - (approx. 1 hr 52 min.)

Sunday, February 20 and Saturday, February 26Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Jacques Deray. 1975.This movie depicts the authentic story of the hunt for the dangerous criminal Emile Buisson, who escaped from prison in 1947.

La Vie et Rien d'Autre - (approx. 2 hr 20 min.)

Sunday, February 27 and Saturday, March 5Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Bertrand Tavernier. 1989.Set in 1920, this powerful drama unfolds in post World War I France, a country devastated both physically and spiritually. It tells the story of two women of different backgrounds who are looking for the missing men they love.

Monsieur Hire - (approx. 1 hr 21 min.)

Sunday, March 6 and Saturday, March 12Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Patrice Leconte. 1989.Monsieur Hire is a maladjusted, balding, middle-aged man living in France. He doesn't like to talk to people.

Code Inconnu - (approx. 1 hr 58 min.)

Sunday, March 13 and Saturday, March 19Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Michael Haneke. 2000.Jean, a farm lad, wants to escape his silent father; he runs to Paris to his older brother, Georges.

Je rentre à la maison / I’m Going Home - (approximately 1 hr 35 min.)

Sunday, March 20 and Saturday, March 26Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Manoel de Oliveira, also wrote the original screenplay. 2000.A simple, yet beautiful film about family relationships, life’s transitions, and the integrity necessary to remain true to one’s professional standards.

Elle est de nôtres / She’s One of Us - (approximately 1 hr 45 min.)

Sunday, March 27 and Saturday, April 2 Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Siegrid Alnoy who also co-wrote the screen play. 2003.Siegrid Alnoy's dark allegorical thriller tells the tale of an outsider who must confront her own personal demons after tragedy strikes.

La Petite Jérusalem / Little Jerusalem - (approximately 1 hr 41 min.)

Sunday, April 3 and Saturday, April 9Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Karen Albou. 2005.Our movie tonight is about an Orthodox Sephardic Jewish family living in a Paris suburb nicknamed “Little Jerusalem” because it is home to so many of that faith. The time period is today, the 21st century.

Sky Fighters - (approx. 1 hr 42 min.)

Sunday, April 10 and Saturday, April 16Study Guide in English & Français (pdf)Directed by Gérard Pirès. 2005.While in an international fair of exhibition of airplanes, a French Mirage 2000 of the last generation vanishes and pilots Antoine "Walk'n" Marchelli and Sebastian "Fahrenheit" Vallois are assigned to locate the plane that is flying in a hiding position below a commercial airplane.

About your host:

Dr. William Arceneaux - William Arceneaux is Director of the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and President of CODOFIL (The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana). He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at Tulane University and Louisiana State University.

From 1987 to 2007, he was President of the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. He became Louisiana’s first Commissioner of Higher Education (1975-1987), and served as Executive Director of the Louisiana Coordinating Council for Higher Education (1972-1975).

He was elected president of the State Higher Education Executive Officer’s Association (representing public colleges and universities) in 1979, and elected president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities State Executives (representing private colleges and universities) in 2002. He remains the only person in the history of American higher education to head both national organizations, one in the public sector of higher education and the other in the private.

Dr. Arceneaux is the founder and chair of La Fondation Louisiane, a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to providing scholarships for students studying the French language at home and abroad. He is on the Board of Directors of the Europe/Louisiana Business Council and the French/American Chamber of Commerce, Louisiana Chapter, and a member of the World Trade Center of New Orleans. The International Order of French-Speaking Parliamentarians awarded him the decoration of Chevalier, L’Ordre de la Pléiade; and the Republic of France named him a Chevalier (1984) and an Officier (2008) in L’Ordre des Palmes Académiques; and he served as a member of the American Committee on the Bicentennial of the French Revolution.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Arceneaux as chair of the board of directors of SallieMae Corporation, a Fortune 500 company and the nation’s largest provider of student loans; he served in that capacity until 1997. From 1989 to 2007, he served as a member, board chair (1992-1994), and member of the executive committee (1992-2007), of the board of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the statewide affiliate of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

William Arceneaux earned his B.A. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, all in history. He has authored two books: ACADIAN GENERAL: ALFRED MOUTON AND THE CIVIL WAR (1981) which was awarded the Jefferson Davis Medal; and NO SPARK OF MALICE: THE MURDER OF MARTIN BEGNAUD (2000) which was nominated by the L.S.U. Press for the Pulitzer Prize in the non-fiction category of Letters and Drama. A French edition of the latter was published by Editions Atlantique in 2007 under the title MEURTRE EN LOUISIANE: L’AFFAIRE DES FRERES BLANC.

He is a member of the American and Louisiana Historical Associations. Dr. Arceneaux was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Loyola University and is listed in WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA. A native of Scott, Louisiana, and a resident of Baton Rouge, he is married and the father of four grown children and the grandfather of five.